Clearfield’s (CLFD) Buy Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

Clearfield (NASDAQ:CLFD)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by investment analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $50.00 target price on the communications equipment provider’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price indicates a potential upside of 32.17% from the stock’s current price.

Separately, StockNews.com lowered Clearfield from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, January 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Clearfield has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.75.

Clearfield Trading Up 4.7 %

CLFD stock opened at $37.83 on Thursday. Clearfield has a 1-year low of $24.78 and a 1-year high of $44.83. The firm has a market cap of $540.55 million, a P/E ratio of -44.51 and a beta of 1.27. The business’s 50 day moving average is $31.82 and its 200-day moving average is $36.01. The company has a current ratio of 9.43, a quick ratio of 6.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

Clearfield (NASDAQ:CLFD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.06) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.19) by $0.13. The business had revenue of $46.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $41.95 million. Clearfield had a negative return on equity of 4.41% and a negative net margin of 7.47%. Clearfield’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.17 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Clearfield will post -0.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Clearfield news, Chairman Ronald G. Roth acquired 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $31.00 per share, with a total value of $155,000.00. Following the purchase, the chairman now owns 1,266,796 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $39,270,676. This represents a 0.40 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 16.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Clearfield

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Creative Planning raised its stake in Clearfield by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 98,088 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $3,782,000 after buying an additional 2,426 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Clearfield by 83.2% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 228,173 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $8,798,000 after buying an additional 103,648 shares during the period. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC increased its holdings in Clearfield by 12.2% during the 3rd quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 249,087 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $9,704,000 after purchasing an additional 27,178 shares in the last quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. bought a new position in Clearfield during the 2nd quarter worth about $453,000. Finally, Divisadero Street Capital Management LP bought a new position in Clearfield during the 2nd quarter worth about $7,801,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.73% of the company’s stock.

Clearfield Company Profile

Clearfield, Inc manufactures and sells various fiber connectivity products in the United States and internationally. The company offers FieldSmart, a series of panels, cabinets, wall boxes, and other enclosures; WaveSmart, an optical components integrated for signal coupling, splitting, termination, multiplexing, demultiplexing, and attenuation for integration within its fiber management platform; and active cabinet products.